Remember When Stocks Looked Like This?

Old school, baby! :) Was going through my desk drawers and forgot I had picked up a handful of these stock certificates over the years… Quite a difference compared to our internet age, eh?

Now you can by a stock (or 1,000 of them) by just moving your finger a few times and hitting some buttons online. No more calling up your broker and yelling “SELL SELL SELL!!!” in a panic, haha… Not that I’m old enough to recall the way it was anyways ;)
Here’s some of my favorite certificates from my collection:

Recognize any of them? So neat, right? My favorites are Pan American World Airways, INC. and The Pennsylvania Railroad Company. Followed by The New York Central Railroad Company, and then The Illinois Traction one… Which is def. nice looking, I just have no idea who those guys are ;) I’d REALLY love to find some older, more famous, companies like Coca-Cola or Apple computers! How cool would that be?!

If you like this kinda stuff, these old stock certificates don’t cost that much to pick up – maybe $3 to $10 all depending on where you find them and what company is listed on ’em. I once got a couple for $1.00 a piece – much cheaper at yard sales than, say, an antique shop.

Anyways, thought these were fun and wanted to share ’em with you today… Anyone else collect old stock certs? Or better yet – have purchased them *originally* from back in the day?? With your name on them and all? I’d frame those bad boys and plop them right up in my Blogger Den ASAP, haha… Would make me more distinguished looking fo sho ;)

The first time I bought stock online was in 1999. I wasn’t seeing the $ sign. They all look no better than numbers on the screen. I was playing with numbers. And that’s a big problem online. Only numbers going from one place to another. Your stock certificates were something to look at and feel them.

You can still buy stock certificates, there are just a lot of fees with them. We considered buying a certificate of Harley Davidson for my fiancee’s dad for a present but I didn’t want to pay the fees AND the stock price. Would you still buy apple knowing you had to pay a few hundred for it?

Reminds me of the conversation I had with my brother in law this weekend. We were talking how cool albums were compared to iTunes or Spotify. You actually had something to hold on to. Lots of pictures on the record jackets and liner notes loaded with information. There is definitely a really cool aspect to these stock certificates as there is with records and books. Not that I’m about to give up the convenience of online money management or Spotify, lol.

Agreed! I actually have a few albums hanging on my walls :) They have great frames for them like for only $10 – they make great art. (And I sometimes take them down and throw ’em on the ol’ record player too! Love the crackly noise!!)

When I first started working in 1996, the company I worked for had a stock purchase plan and they issued paper certificates. I held on to them for about 10 years until the company was bought out and we had to surrender the certificates or delay receiving the proceeds. That was the first and last time I’ve personally had them :)

Haha I bet. It’s too bad they couldn’t just stamp them or whatever and then hand then back to y’all afterwards. I should have actually scanned in the BACKS of some of these guys – they’re stamped all over with signatures and tons of messiness – pretty neat.

Oh nice, thx for the link man. I used to have a bunch of paper savings bonds from my grandparents too, but eventually just converted them and dropped ’em into our Roth IRAs to give them a bit more juice… I kept getting worried I’d lose them or they wouldn’t be worth anything later or something, haha… which is funny because back when the internet came out everyone was too afraid to touch that!

Like Lance said, you can still buy them but are often bloated with fees. That said, I do think many of them are cool looking and a lot of older individuals still have quite a few of them. I had one from my grandfather for AT & T. I am still kicking myself for getting rid of it, though what did I know as a stupid teenager?! ;)

As others said, you can buy stock certs yet. The active companies (like CocaCola) typically are the cost of the shares of stock + $15-50 fee to produce the certificate (depending on the transfer agent used).

My favorite stock certificate is the Disney Company. I still want to get one of those for myself to start a collection (much like your coin collection).

My grandfather worked for US Steel and got stock certificates as either payment or he just bought them (no one remembers). When my grandmother passed away, she had a small safe deposit box of them that my mother had to find a broker willing to take them to sell!

I had an account at an online shop that I closed. When I closed it, I requested certificates rather than have them moved to another broker. So, I have several paper certificates that I’ve got in my safe. It’s kinda cool!

At yard sales and antique shops! Sometimes you can get lucky and find them super cheap for just a few bucks each, and other times – especially if they’re a more famous company or you’re at an antique shop – they go for $10-$20 a pop.

I’ve never gotten my hands on one of these, but that would be sweet! The railroad one looks epic. Owning a piece of history is a very cool thing. I can see how you’ve developed an addict…..ummmm….a LOVE for antiques ;)

Those are awesome. I can honestly say that I don’t remember when these were actually in use nor have I ever seen one in person. I would love to get a few of these to hang up in the “man cave”. That being said, I’m really glad that we don’t still use these certificates. It’s so nice how easy it is to buy and sell stocks nowadays.

Awesome posts today! I bought my daughter savings bonds when she was first born, for her first birthdays, etc. She’s now 32, and still has them; won’t let them go for anything! I was surprised when she told me some of her friends had never seen such a thing…so the next time I hit a garage sale I’m definitely going to be looking for these. Also, thanks to all who shared ideas & links. Very cool. Also love the old album covers as wall art but most of all-is there anything as sweet as that crackly sound when you put the needle on the vinyl????

A great problem to have!! :) Maybe they’ll let you keep them after you convert ’em? Just put a bunch of holes all over and stamps showing they’re redeemed or something – that’s what mine look like. Or turn around and sell them for $5 a piece and re-invest THAT money back into more stock! haha…. YES!

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I, J. Money, only claim the thoughts from my head. I am not a banker, CPA, money manager or anything else of that sort. Please seek a professional for any "real" advice. More info: privacy & disclosure page